If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I hate blogs that moderate comments. I hate blogs that only allow readers to post comments after they have been approved by the blog’s owner. Nothing demonstrates just why I hate comment moderation more then a recent post on Occasional Superheroine. Valerie D’Orazio, the blog’s owner, must first approve a comment before it appears on her blog.
She wrote a post that asked if comic book creators and other funny book professionals should have private security with them when they attend comic book conventions. What would prompt such a question? She pointed to a recent discussion that took place on Newsarama between TV producer and comic book writer Marc Guggenheim and comic book reviewer and blogger Kevin Huxford. The discussion spiraled into the recent WGA writers strike and Marc Guggenheim’s comment that there was nothing wrong with a non-WGA member crossing a WGA picket line. Huxford rightfully pointed out that no good union member approves of or encourages any person to cross a union picket line. Guggenheim responded that since Huxford didn’t work in Hollywood and wasn’t a member of the WGA, he lacked the ability to understand the “nuances” pertaining to the WGA strike. Huxford responded to this snarky comment by stating that since his knowledge of the particulars was being called into question, he was turning the matter over to the WGA so they could decide if Guggenheim actions were indeed improper or not.
Of course some people freaked out over this.
Valerie D’Orazio tried to make the asinine assertion that Kevin Huxford posed some type of threat to Marc Guggenheim’s physical well being. As if reporting someone to their union for encouraging or condoning people to cross a picket line means that next they will obtain a high powered sniper rifle and try to take them out from 500 yards away at the next Wizard World.
That’s just dumb.
What does this have to do with comment moderation? She wont allow Kevin Huxford to defend himself. Over 45 comments have been left on Valerie D’Orazio’s post. None of them have been from Kevin Huxford. She evidently is not allowing them to get through. Who else is she not allowing to comment? I left two comments. One she approved, the other one she did not. Why not? Because my opinion didn’t mesh with her opinion? So what? I just don’t get that. Click here to read my second comment, the one that she didn’t “approve”.
Allowing a free flow of ideas is an important part of the blog equation. When a blogger employs comment moderation and uses it to filter out opinions that differ with their own, they might as well ditch the blogging platform and just write Word documents. It’s dishonest. It gives the false impression that everyone reading and commenting agrees with the author. That very well might not be the case. Bloggers shouldn’t be afraid of people not agreeing with them. Bloggers shouldn’t be afraid of someone pointing out that they are wrong. They shouldn’t use comment moderation to discourage dissenting opinions. In fact, they should be encouraging people to weigh in with contrary opinions.
